Disneyland has started work on its new parking garage, which will go up on the site of the former Pinocchio parking lot. As part of the site prep work, Disneyland has moved its security check and tram-loading stations into the bottom level of the Mickey and Friends parking structure. It's the latest of what seems to be never-ending changes at Disneyland, as the resort prepares for next year's opening of its "Star Wars" land and the addition of a fourth hotel sometime after that.

But the top question that fans have been asking me after the tram station switch hasn't had anything to do with those upcoming additions to the resort. People want to know if they can still walk between the parking garage and the parks.

For now, you can, though you're better off skipping the escalators and just using the middle stairwell on the south side of the garage that meets up with the walking path. Having this option remains important to a lot of Disneyland fans, because the ability to get around on your own can take a lot of the pressure off a busy day in the parks.

The fact that Disneyland is walkable is the biggest reason why I prefer the Anaheim park over its bigger, more popular sibling, Walt Disney World in Florida. It's nice not to have to get in a car or wait for a bus or tram whenever you want to go from park to park or to a hotel, like you do in Florida.

Walt Disney famously wanted to put a lot space between his Florida development and all the surrounding motels and restaurants, like those that clogged Harbor Boulevard next to Disneyland in California. But that ultimately left Walt Disney World a sprawling mess, where fans can spend a good chuck of their vacation waiting in line for buses or at parking lot toll booths as they try to

Theme park fans endure enough waiting in line as it is. Forcing everyone at Mickey and Friends to board trams instead letting some of us skip them by walking would make the wait for those trams even longer they often are now. No one wants that.

The cheapest, more environmentally friendly transportation option for getting around a community is almost always walking. But designers have to create communities that make walking possible. Too many communities are built under the assumption that everyone always will use their cars to get around, even for absurdly short trips. That thinking leaves every store, every restaurant an island in a sea of asphalt, increasing the space between destinations and making walking to get around impractical or impossible.

Theme parks ought to be ideal communities, so ensuring that pleasant, efficient walking routes are part of their planning ought to be a design requirement. So should keeping destinations close enough together to make walking an attractive alternative. It's just a more efficient way to plan. Why spread stuff out, taking up expensive land and forcing you to spend money on huge transportation systems? The Disney World model just doesn't hold in the 21st century.

Many of us want more walkable communities now. Disney's done a pretty good job with that to date in Anaheim, as Universal did in Orlando and expanding theme park resorts are beginning to do in Europe and the Middle East.

Most times I visit Disneyland, I skip the wait for the tram back to the garage and just hoof it. I hope that Disneyland always gives us that option. Even if walking sometimes ends up talking more time than waiting for a tram back to the parking lot, just avoiding one more queue at the end of the day can feel like blessed relief.